'The Lazarus Effect' box office: Olivia Wilde and Mark Duplass horror movie arrives comatose (photo: Olivia Wilde in 'The Lazarus Effect') (See previous post: "'Focus': Will Smith Has One of Worst Opening Weekends of His Career.") Despite recent news that human head transplants are a mere two years away, the Mark Duplass-Olivia Wilde horror movie The Lazarus Effect – about bringing the dead back to life (as if world overpopulation weren't already a problem) – grossed $10.6 million from 2,666 U.S. and Canada venues on opening weekend, Feb. 27-March 1, 2015, according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. The Relativity Studios-distributed low-budget horror flick had earned an estimated $3.8 million on opening-day Friday, including $350,000 from Thursday night screenings. Last week, box-office prognosticators had been expecting an opening between $12-$14 million. That was adjusted downward to $10 million or whereabouts after the film's disappointing Friday debut. Some, in fact,
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“Birdman” might be the most subversive and downright weirdest Best Picture Oscar winner in history. In order to help fans of Riggan and his art-house hating alter-ego celebrate yesterday’s newly minted win, we offer you the complete audio-only Q&A with director Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu and stars Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis and Amy Ryan. Presented as an episode of “The Close-Up”, The Film Society at Lincoln Center’s official podcast, the Q&A was conducted at The Lincoln Center hours before the screening of “Birdman” as the Closing Night Selection during the 2014 New York Film Festival.
While Inarritu mostly sticks to describing the many ideological and technical challenges he faced while translating his vision to the big screen, Keaton candidly admits that he doesn’t really pay much attention to critics, which was an important component of the film's story where the argument
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Remain in Light acquired Gold, Three Generations and Louder Than Bombs in association with local distributor Victory Productions, with whom it has collaborated on a number of titles in recent years.

Penelope Cruz and Diane Kruger have been in talks to star in Coixet drama This Man This Woman, in which a woman encounters a former lover on a plane, sparking memories of their turbulent romantic relationship.

Birdman was honored with Best Picture at the 87th Annual Academy Awards, which took place tonight at the Dolby Theater in the Hollywood and Highland Center, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris. Birdman took home four Oscars tonight in total, winning for Best Picture, Best Director (Alejandro Gonz&#225lez I&#241&#225rritu), Best Original Screenplay (Alejandro Gonz&#225lez I&#241&#225rritu, Armando Bo, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicol&#225s Giacobone) and Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki). The film also tied for the most wins of the night with The Grand Budapest Hotel, which won for Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design and Best Original Score.

If you haven't seen Birdman yet, you may want to skip over some of this story, as we'll be talking about the ending of the movie. It could contain some mild spoilers. Those that have seen the Oscar-nominated drama already know that this tale of a washed-up actor attempting to reestablish himself with a stage show features a conclusion that is as exciting as it is ambiguous. It even feels as though there was another ending planned altogether. It turns out, that notion is true. And Collider has discovered exactly what that original ending entailed. Turns out, it would have featured Johnny Depp talking to himself in character as one of his most iconic roles, the pirate Captain Jack Sparrow.

In other recent interviews, star Michael Keaton and director Alejandro Gonz&#225lez I&#241&#225rritu have hinted that during the production, the film's climax was dramatically altered. Speaking with co-writer of the movie,
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The film, which has garnered nine Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, was included in hundreds of top 10 lists across the globe for 2014 (including Flickering Myth’s own list), and has already won multiple awards through the awards season over the last few months.

Hollywood has always been a place of dreams, built on the idea that anyone can become a star. That Cinderella story (or spotted-in-Schwab’s-drugstore story) is all part of the glamor that is Hollywood. And when looking at this year’s acting races, it seems the dream is more alive than ever.

Out of this year’s 20 acting nominees, nine are first-timers to the Academy Awards. The lead actor race features only one previous nominee, Bradley Cooper, among a group of freshmen. New faces like Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch managed to work their way into what may be the most competitive actor race ever.

Of course, none are overnight successes. Supporting actor frontrunner J.K. Simmons may not be a household name, but odds are audiences know his face from more than 20 years in TV (“Oz,” “Law & Order”) and films (“Juno,” “Spider-Man”). And though Rosamund Pike became the new It Girl thanks to “Gone Girl,
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The wife and husband duo behind Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, and Gentlemen Broncos gives us Don Verdean, a relatively tame exploration into the antics of biblical archaeology. The subject matter is rife with comedic possibilities but the film doesn’t go big enough with its shenanigans to see us through to being truly entertained. There are sporadic moments of inspiration, but they are too few and far in between to save it from itself. Not much is skewered about religion, instead broadly-drawn zealots populate the plot who desperately want to believe that discoveries abound which could validate biblical stories. The religious extremism doesn’t go far enough, as if it’s afraid of offending its audience. It seems satisfied to keep it mild and barely tongue-in-cheek. A rocking
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20th Century Fox has revealed that the Michael Keaton starring film, Birdman (which is nominated for 9 Academy awards), is coming to blu-ray in just a couple weeks. So if you missed out on it during it's limited run in theaters, you'll soon get your chance to see what all the commotion's about. Come inside for all the details on the blu-ray!

Birdman will hit blu-ray with it's (admittedly light) special features on February 17th, but you can catch it on digital download right now:

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Regency Enterprises invite audiences to take flight with a New Regency / M Productions / Le Grisbi production, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) – winner of two Golden Globes® Awards and 9 Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture, the critically-acclaimed film soars onto Blu-ray™ and DVD February 17 and is now available on Digital HD™. “Daring, devastating, and howlingly funny
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There are a growing number of recent films that have tried to make a fun joke out of religion, which can sometimes be a sensitive subject (at least in this country). Not many of them are that good, as sometimes they get too dumb with the humor (e.g. Year One), but sometimes they strike the right chord, touching upon both the importance of and hilarity of modern religion. Don Verdean is the latest film from Jared Hess & Jerusha Hess, the husband/wife filmmaker team that brought us Napoleon Dynamite and Gentlemen Broncos previously. Don Verdean is the name of religious artifacts collector who gets into some deep shit.
In Don Verdean, Sam Rockwell dons a beard and plays Don, a religious collector who made a name for himself years ago but is well past his prime now. Working with his assistant Carol, played by Amy Ryan, he decides to
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Park City, Utah – HollywoodChicago.com’s coverage of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival is far from over. This is the latest batch of reviews of movies that I’ve seen there. One film was a triumph while the other two are titles that I wouldn’t want to be stuck talking to at a party.

Running equal portions of dry goofiness and finite inspired storytelling, Jared Hess’ “Don Verdean” is a rewarding comedy about Biblical archaeology that’s necessary for times in which religious institutions crave sensationalism to get their good word across. For those who read “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven” before its child author said he made it all up, or those who saw “Heaven Is For Real” as a type of precursor to their own death’s aftermath, this movie is for them. It’s a brilliant take
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The “Napoleon Dynamite” magic fails to re-materialize in Jared and Jerusha Hess’ latest comedy. “Don Verdean” has a promising premise: The titular protagonist is a self-appointed “biblical archaeologist” roaming the globe for famous relics that have mysteriously evaded far more qualified experts for centuries. But the expected satire of religious gullibility and charlatanism proves toothless; worse, a cast of very funny people is given very little funny to do. This Lionsgate title (its release Tba) looks to make its primary, modest impact in ancillary formats.

Things look encouraging enough at the outset, as we are privy to a highlight reel of low-end video clips from “Verdeen Acheological Discovery Prods.,” in which Sam Rockwell’s intrepid explorer for Jesus is seen allegedly wowing international audiences of the faithful with his amazing — or perhaps just credulity-stretching — finds in the Holy Land dirt. It seems whenever he thinks of a key memento from a biblical story,
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Jared Hess is back at it again with his latest film Don Verdean. This is the comedic writer/director (and sometimes actor’s) first film in six years. Check out the new clip here…

In the above clip, Danny McBride, who plays Tony Lazarus attempts to proposition biblical archaeologist Don Verdean (Sam Rockwell) to come work for his church the Lazarus fellowship. After offering to bankroll his endeavors, Leslie Bibb who plays Joylinda Lazarus, helps drive the nail in the coffin, so to speak. After very little actual convincing, Verdean willingly obliges. “I think it’s fair to say this might be a match made in heaven,” says Verdean with an obviously bad religious pun.

Don Verdean follows the title character (Sam Rockwell), a Biblical archaeologist hired by the local church pastor to find faith-promoting relics in the Holy Land. After proving unsuccessful in his attempts to find anything of substance,
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Not the kind of mega-watt moment she was hoping for! Naomi Watts tripped on Emma Stone's dress while onstage at the 2015 SAG Awards on Sunday, Jan. 25.
The Birdman actresses, along with Edward Norton, Amy Ryan, Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, and more, accepted the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. As per SAG tradition, the microphone was passed around from actor to actor, and Watts' speech kicked off with quite the spill.
After Keaton had addressed his peers, the St. Vincent nominee, [...]
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In her acceptance speech for outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards, Still Alice star Julianne Moore gave a shout-out to her early days on the soap opera As the World Turns.
"When I was on As the World Turns," Moore, 54, said to cheers, "I was so excited when they wrote two parts for me, the classic twin sister role, the good and the evil one ... and then I realized it was super boring to act by myself. And what I really loved, what I really craved, was being with another actor.
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SAG-aftra presented its coveted Actor statuettes for the outstanding motion picture and primetime television performances of 2014 at the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in ceremonies attended by film and television’s leading actors, held Sunday, Jan. 25, at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center.

The Actor for a motion picture cast performance went this year to Birdman.

“Birdman” won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture on Sunday, and the ensemble’s acceptance speech was one of the more entertaining moments of the otherwise dull awards show.

First, the room full of actors that Edward Norton pointed out were truly privileged to be working with saw Naomi Watts trip on her way to the microphone.

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